| The work presented here concerns the optical and magneto-optical responses of thin films (metallic, conducting oxide, and metal-to-insulator phase transition thin films) and metallic nanoparticles, under the excitation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) and localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). The underlying aim of this thesis is to build the current understanding of SPP/LSPR excitation in various nano-materials, and thus provide exciting alternatives in plasmonic based applications. In this thesis, we present our research work on SPPs and LSPR studies in different kinds of thin films and nanoparticles. We present theoretical and experimental studies on the observed strong enhancement of the magneto-optical Faraday rotation in all-metal core-shell Fe-Ag/Co-Ag nanoparticles, attributed to strong LSPR excitation in the noble metal shells. We also report observation of optically excited SPPs and bulk plasmons in ruthenium oxide (Ru02) thin films, offering an exciting alternative to conventional metals for metamaterials and plasmonic applications, due to their low optical losses in the visible and near-infrared ranges. Finally, we report on the first observation of optically excited tunable SPPs in vanadium dioxide (VO 2) thin films during its thermally induced metal-to-insulator phase transition. |
